They're less exciting to watch for the most part, though.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Honestly, memorizing words and reciting them isn't that impressive, and it definitely isn't exciting.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Many athletes and celebrities have college degrees... i'm pretty sure none of these kids do. Also, physically, athletes... well, athletes, need i say more? Their living is being physically gifted.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Celebrities, maybe. Athletes, no.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

To me no, I mean when you can do that you just need to memorize the letters and study them a couple hours. Athletes have to work hours everyay and suffer from the pain of the game. And some have to mix school in their schedule because at least in my state to be an athlete in middle school or high school you must have at least a B in every subject. And for college scholarships they have to keep in shape or they will lose it. And for celebs it depends on which one, people like Lindsay Lohan or Snooki yes but some work really hard for charities.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It's not hard to be able to spell.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My God, some of the people here are idiots. "It's not hard to be able to spell", honestly. That's the stupidest and most asinine thing I've heard in a while. The kids who go to the nationals are truly gifted. I got to fourth place in my state spelling bee, and let me tell you, it wasn't easy. You can't just spell things phonetically, and you can't memorize every single word in the dictionary. You have to know the idiosyncrasies of every possible language a word can be derived from. For instance, the "f" sound in words derived from Greek is almost always spelled "ph", and the long o sound in French derived words it usually spelled "ot". I also find spelling MUCH more interesting than sports, but that's just an opinion.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I agree. I used to be in spelling bees and preparing takes much more than just memorizing a few hundred words. You have to learn characteristics of each language and word form, just like athletes have to learn techniques and strategies. Celebrities, however, most of them are where they are because they're hot or have a famous relative.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

They're *saying letters*. I'm sure it took lots of practice and hard work and intelligence and memory and all, but that still doesn't make it very interesting in my opinion. They just *stand there* and *say letters*... Anyway, I bet I could do it... :P They don't have spelling competitions where I am though, so I don't really know. Actually no, I take that back. I probably couldn't do it, as I suck at spelling out loud. But if it was on paper, maybe...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The winning word in 2005 was "appoggiatura", pronounced "uh-poj-uh-tor-uh". You really think that you could spell that? What you don't understand is that these kids spend YEARS studying spelling. Saying that you could do it is pretentious.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Possibly, with practice. What makes those kids so different to me, apart from having practiced? And the last thing I said in my comment was that I most likely *couldn't* do it, especially because it involves spelling out loud.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It isn't *standing there* or *saying letters* that is hard about it. It's knowing what letters to say that makes it impressive. Also, this post isn't about how interesting it is, it's about how talented the kids are.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I think this post is kind of exaggerating...it's just a spelling bee lol

by Anonymous 12 years ago

These kids are super weird though. It takes hours and hours each day to do the studying they do. Tell me if anyone normal would do that.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

R u calling me super weird cuz i got 2nd place in a regional spelling bee... Soooooooo ur just jealous.... I'm pretty normal and I do that

by Anonymous 12 years ago

More impressive and talented? People actually think that? Wow, i knew this site was slightly more biased to nerds over jocks, but seriously?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You athletes really need to get off your high horse. Especially those who don't do much hard work, but are accepted onto their middle/high school football team because it's a small school and they need a full team.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

It's not a high horse, you're just really short.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Cymotrichous

by Anonymous 12 years ago

^ the winning word this year ^

by Anonymous 12 years ago